Getting The Funk Out Again: Extreme reunite for tour and new album

If only for the fact their bassist was called Pat Badger, Extreme are a band to be remembered fondly.

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If only for the fact their bassist was called Pat Badger, Extreme are a band to be remembered fondly.

Of course their 1991 smash hit More Than Words may drive some of you to drinking meths to numb the agonising pain but there's no denying guitarist Nuno Bettencourt was a hero to shred fans of a certain age.

Now - after a few odd live dates here and there – the band are giving a reunion their full attention. Especially as Nuno is now out of Perry Farrell's Satellite Party.

On Saturday, 1 December, original Extreme members Bettencourt, singer Gary Cherone, Pat Badger and new drummer Kevin Figueiredo will take the stage at the Orpheum in Boston to rock the Boston Music Awards — the first step to a 2008 world reunion tour and new album.

"We weren't gonna do it until we had a record out," Bettencourt told BostonHerald.com. "But (Aerosmith drummer and the BMAs honorary chairman) Joey Kramer reached out to us. He wanted to make the BMAs special like they used to be, so we figured why not?"

But hang on, new sticksman you say? Original Extreme drummer Paul Geary, who manages Godsmack, decided to opt out of the reunion, but he had no ard feelings.

"Paul's a manager now, he doesn't play much," Bettencourt said. "He knew straightaway he wasn't able to do it, (but) the blessing is definitely there."

The band's as-yet-untitled studio album with all-new material — the band's fifth — will be released sometime in spring 2008. A very large tour will follow, claims Nuno.

Bettencourt has described the new album as a "straight-up rock record" that expands on Extreme's funk-metal sound.

"Even though we wanted to do something for years, we had to have something new to offer," he said. "In the last six months we started writing some great songs. If they weren't, we wouldn't be doing this."